I have been lucky enough to receive an artist initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for this coming year. I will be reflecting on 4 pieces of puppetry that I have already created and re-working them with mentor/directors to improve them. Then, I will present them at Dreamland Arts (hopefully) in St. Paul in order to have a public showing and record all of the performances professionally.

The photo above is from a cabaret piece, but I just wanted to publicly announce that I am working toward a new marionette performance. After deciding to work with marionettes and studying in Prague last summer, I have continued working toward improving the puppets I create. I am currently working with Kurt Hunter, a well-known marionette expert in the Twin Cities, to learn a more "American" style of marionettes. Working with Kurt is being funded as part of the NextStep Grant through the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC) and is thanks to a cultural appropriation from the arts and culture heritage fund. I imagine that I will end up mixing and matching both types in the future, but for now I am finally working on a marionette piece about how humans deal with our seeming loneliness when faced with the vastness of the universe and finally seeking to create a more mature theatre piece and not one meant specifically for children.

The last month has been a month of going to preschools! Gary's Garden premiered at Dodge Nature Center along with performing the Ants Who Wanted to Fly and another performance at Foundational Hill Montessori School! Preschool audiences are awesome!

Two ants want to fly very badly, so they wait for an egg to hatch, thinking it will be a bird they can hitch a ride on. They are disappointed when they find a caterpillar has hatched out of the egg, but they keep waiting and watching to figure out how to fly. Follow the ants as they discover the joy of the natural world! The Ants Who Wanted to Fly is a fun, funny show appropriate for audiences ages 3-10 years old and it is perfect for birthday parties.

The Ants Who Wanted to Fly is a one-person table-top puppet show that is available for any special event from Seth.

You can catch me in three different puppet shows at the Minnesota Zoo produced by Puppets 'n' People. Buppet Labs is performing all summer long every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You can see a different show at each show time of 11:00AM, 2:00PM, and 3:30PM. You can even learn about social insects with ants, pollination with bees, and defensive strategies through the lens of a spider. Check us out as part of the Minnesota Zoo's Big Bugs! Exhibit!

Faces of Celebration at the Eagan Art Festival

Check out the masks and faces created by the community of Eagan at the Eagan Art Festival on the Faces of Celebration Facebook page. Designing this project for the community was fantastic, and the turnout for the festival was great!